Hard to tell just from that screenshot what's going on, but you probably aren't doing anything wrong since that's supposed to be fairly straightforward to set up. I would recommend submitting another post that has your viBoot log file attached. You'll find the log files at C:\ProgramData\Macrium\viBoot, and to attach a file to a post, mouse over the Insert button underneath the text box where you write your post, then select Add File. It might also help to post a screenshot showing the partition layout of the image you're working with. You can do that by selecting that image in the Restore area of Reflect, which will cause its partition map to appear in the upper area of the interface.

Below are some screenshots. The log file does not show really anything. I've tried several diffrent images with none working.

However, I tried something as a test. I created a new full image containing drive C: AND this time added also the System partition (see screenshot with it circled) and it worked! All by backups I have done have just the C: drive.

That was definitely the problem. That System partition is necessary for booting, and it's good that you caught this now, because if you had a hard drive failure at some point in the future and tried to restore from a backup that only had your C partition, you wouldn't have been able to boot your restored backup. Those extra partitions aren't there just so the PC gods can arbitrarily take up space on your system.

Fyi, in your screenshot of the whole Reflect interface, do you see that option under Backup Tasks in the upper-left corner called "Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows"? Click that and see which partitions are selected by default. Any system image backups should include at least those partitions. The rightmost partition on your disk is probably your manufacturer's factory image restore partition, which you may or may not want to bother backing up depending on whether you care about being able to return that system to its factory state at some point.

On a side note, the partition layouts of your Western Digital disks are very odd. Why are you using logical partitions on the 1TB disk? You've only got 4 total partitions, so they could all have been primary partitions. The 4TB disk has 5 total partitions, so at least two of them would need to have been logical partitions given that it's using the MBR layout, but even there it's odd that you have a primary partition AFTER those two. However, the much larger problem on that disk is that it's using the MBR layout despite having a 4TB capacity. That suggests that the disk is inside a USB enclosure that's employing a hack of sorts, and the impact of that hack is that the disk would be completely unreadable if you ever had to access it from outside that enclosure, e.g. if the enclosure electronics ever failed but the disk was still fine. See the "Update for USB enclosures" section of this KB article. Unfortunately there isn't really a solution to that problem other than getting an enclosure that doesn't use that type of hack solution.

And just as a general note, I personally wouldn't really advise using separate partitions just for different backups. You could simply use folders on a single partition, and you'd end up with much more flexible use of your available disk capacity. Getting too "partition-happy" can cause you to end up with free space where you don't need it, and not enough capacity where you wish you had more.

Below are some screenshots. The log file does not show really anything. I've tried several diffrent images with none working.

However, I tried something as a test. I created a new full image containing drive C: AND this time added also the System partition (see screenshot with it circled) and it worked! All by backups I have done have just the C: drive.

I look forward to your help and many thanks!

WTD3

Hi WTD3 and thank you for your post​.

The System partition is the partition that contains the files required to boot, so you must include this in the backup if you want to use viBoot. The C: partition just contains the Windows installation and is loaded after the System partition.

Reflect indicates that a partition is "required to boot Windows" with the Windows logo on the partition layout.

Y​​ou can use the "Create an image of the partition(s)​ required to backup and restore Windows" link on the left of the Reflect main screen to quickly create such an image.​Kind Regards,Macrium Support​​

That was definitely the problem. That System partition is necessary for booting, and it's good that you caught this now, because if you had a hard drive failure at some point in the future and tried to restore from a backup that only had your C partition, you wouldn't have been able to boot your restored backup. Those extra partitions aren't there just so the PC gods can arbitrarily take up space on your system.

Fyi, in your screenshot of the whole Reflect interface, do you see that option under Backup Tasks in the upper-left corner called "Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows"? Click that and see which partitions are selected by default. Any system image backups should include at least those partitions. The rightmost partition on your disk is probably your manufacturer's factory image restore partition, which you may or may not want to bother backing up depending on whether you care about being able to return that system to its factory state at some point.

On a side note, the partition layouts of your Western Digital disks are very odd. Why are you using logical partitions on the 1TB disk? You've only got 4 total partitions, so they could all have been primary partitions. The 4TB disk has 5 total partitions, so at least two of them would need to have been logical partitions given that it's using the MBR layout, but even there it's odd that you have a primary partition AFTER those two. However, the much larger problem on that disk is that it's using the MBR layout despite having a 4TB capacity. That suggests that the disk is inside a USB enclosure that's employing a hack of sorts, and the impact of that hack is that the disk would be completely unreadable if you ever had to access it from outside that enclosure, e.g. if the enclosure electronics ever failed but the disk was still fine. See the "Update for USB enclosures" section of this KB article. Unfortunately there isn't really a solution to that problem other than getting an enclosure that doesn't use that type of hack solution.

And just as a general note, I personally wouldn't really advise using separate partitions just for different backups. You could simply use folders on a single partition, and you'd end up with much more flexible use of your available disk capacity. Getting too "partition-happy" can cause you to end up with free space where you don't need it, and not enough capacity where you wish you had more.

Thanks for letting me know that I have not been backing up the System partition! I would have really been in trouble if I ever need to move to a new drive! THANKS!! I will add the System partition to my backup defintion files.

As far as why these partition on my WD 1 TB Passport with 4 partitions and My Book 4 TB with 5 partitions are not all primary I have no idea. I must have change them somehow a long time ago. So your saying that I need to change these 9 partitions on these 2 external WD drives to primary? Will I lose my data on these partitions if I do this?

Yes, I am "Partition Happy"...tooooo happy I have been this way for a least 10 years. The reason primarily is because of organization and I use drive picture ICO's and descriptions of what that partition is for, etc.

I look forward to your reply and thank you very much for all the awesome help!

Don’t just add the System partition. Add any partitions that are checked when you click that option I mentioned above. That will probably be the 128MB partition after your System partition and at least one of the Windows Recovery partitions.

For the external drives, you can’t convert a logical partition to a primary partition. You’d have to delete the entire extended partition that acts as a container for the two logical partitions (the green ones in Reflect), which of course would delete all of the data they contain, and then create two primary partitions in that space. It’s not really worth the hassle though, since the main advantage of primary partitions is that you can boot from them, which isn’t possible with extended/logical partitions, but obviously you don’t need to boot from those partitions. It’s just odd that it was set up that way, but not problematic.

The same is true for the 4TB disk — odd partition layout, but not problematic. Normally with any disk larger than 2TB you’d be using the GPT layout instead, which doesn’t even have this concept of primary vs. extended/logical partitions and also allows up to 128 partitions per disk, but again it’s probably not worth reworking the disk at this point, and even doing that wouldn’t resolve the issue about the USB enclosure lying to the system about the disk’s sector layout. For that, I guess just make sure you never need to access that disk outside of its enclosure!

Don’t just add the System partition. Add any partitions that are checked when you click that option I mentioned above. That will probably be the 128MB partition after your System partition and at least one of the Windows Recovery partitions.For the external drives, you can’t convert a logical partition to a primary partition. You’d have to delete the entire extended partition that acts as a container for the two logical partitions (the green ones in Reflect), which of course would delete all of the data they contain, and then create two primary partitions in that space. It’s not really worth the hassle though, since the main advantage of primary partitions is that you can boot from them, which isn’t possible with extended/logical partitions, but obviously you don’t need to boot from those partitions. It’s just odd that it was set up that way, but not problematic.The same is true for the 4TB disk — odd partition layout, but not problematic. Normally with any disk larger than 2TB you’d be using the GPT layout instead, which doesn’t even have this concept of primary vs. extended/logical partitions and also allows up to 128 partitions per disk, but again it’s probably not worth reworking the disk at this point, and even doing that wouldn’t resolve the issue about the USB enclosure lying to the system about the disk’s sector layout. For that, I guess just make sure you never need to access that disk outside of its enclosure!

I'll add all of them as you suggest. This PC came with Windows 8.1 and I am sure some of these partitions have the recovery for Windows 8.1. I updated it to Windows 10 Home and just found out last week that I could update Windows 10 Home to Pro with a Windows 8.1 Pro Key. I had a set of CD's sent to me in error by Microsoft years ago and Microsoft last week let me use the key to get the Windows 10 Pro that I have wanted to get Hyper-V, etc. and I bought Macrium Home this Black Friday and I am learning about the viboot feature that I have always wanted thanks to your help!

Since I have one of my Macrium Reflect partition ( R: ) on my 4 TB drive set to Logical, I might as well fix it. I realize that I will lose the data, but I have the 1 TB external with Macrium Backups on it. I do Macrium Backup on these 2 external drives for double safety.

If your system originally came with 8.1, you can probably skip the Recovery partition at the end of the disk since that would be from your manufacturer. The other two Recovery partitions would be Windows Recovery partitions, and the reason you have two is that originally your system was using the one that's first on disk, and at some point a Windows 10 release you upgraded to needed a larger Recovery partition than was available. Since the first one couldn't be expanded in-place, it shrank your C drive to free up the required space and created a new, larger Windows Recovery partition in the newly freed up space immediately after your C drive. The first one is now useless, but since its location doesn't allow its capacity to be reclaimed and repurposed easily, it's just sitting there. If you ever restored your system, you could omit that first Recovery partition from the restore to reclaim some capacity and extend your C drive by the corresponding amount as part of the restore, fyi. So my guess is that the "Partitions required to boot Windows" selected in Reflect will be #2-5 on your disk, and that's therefore what I would back up.